Know what I mean?

September 3, 2009 7:34 AM

Blur's Parklife. Huh?

I really can't figure out what this song is about. I get the impression that there are issues of class and maybe region that are understandable to UKians, but as a west coast USian who doesn't know anything about Blur I'm clueless. So here are some questions:

What is the region/class dialect spoken? What is the social context behind what the narrator is saying? What is Blur trying to say about people like the narrator? What is a "parklife?" Vorsprung Durch Technic?

posted by Mountain Goatse to society & culture (15 comments total)

ILM on Parklife

Songmeanings on Parklife
posted by neustile at 7:42 AM on September 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorsprung_durch_Technik

Damon's accent is often derided as "Mockney" but your mileage may vary. There's a lot of other Essex boys who sound similar. But I'm one of those weirdos who'll defend Damon with her dying breath.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mockney

Phil Daniels is more Cockney/East End.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockney
posted by elsietheeel at 8:07 AM on September 3

Oh and - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estuary_English
posted by elsietheeel at 8:10 AM on September 3

Apocryphal Trivia: Phil Daniels does the speaking bits because the song required Proper Cockney accent and Damon's was deemed Not Cockney Enough.
posted by greenish at 8:26 AM on September 3

Damon's accent is often derided as "Mockney" but your mileage may vary. There's a lot of other Essex boys who sound similar.

He's a mockney because he's a middle class person putting on an accent to sound like a working class person not because he accent is bad/inaccurate (I'm not commenting on whether it is or not)
posted by missmagenta at 8:29 AM on September 3

Some of the comments on Song Meanings look about right to me.

"Parklife" seems like a catch all term for day to day modern life - friendship, leisure time, work, upgrading your car, eating too much, exercising - everyday concerns that feature in the video and that preoccupy people. It's a mocking portrayal of modern English (London-centric) suburban living, but there isn't a great deal of actual meaning in the lyrics - they are just chopped up snapshots of the concerns of the normal Joe type character played by Phil Daniels. He's a middle aged double glazing salesman who drives a Ford Granada and likes lecturing people, it's about him and his type rather than any cryptic message about class or society. IMO.
posted by fire&wings at 8:38 AM on September 3

The video adds to the context somewhat- for example the line 'Vorsprung durch Technik' is spoken when Phil drives up next to an Audi.
posted by sid.tv at 9:01 AM on September 3

I've always interpreted it as a park(ed) life: a life spend in an idle gear, not actually doing anything significant except going through a pointless cycle of wake up, eat some toast, sit around, watch the tv, go back to bed... and instead of getting depressed over it, you embrace it and spend your days away so parked.

A life in (P)ark rather than (D)rive.

My own view only.
posted by rokusan at 9:24 AM on September 3

Originally, as a gay American who was in love with Blur as a young tourist/student visiting/studying in London and various parts of the UK around the time of that album's release -- I always, with the help of the sexuality celebrated in "Girls and Boys" and my own personal experiences in UK parks that would make George Michael blush, imagined the parts of the song that I didn't "get" had some strange "downlow" hidden gay code double meaning to those in the UK (even though I didn't think the band had any interest in that nor intention of ever publicizing that's what they meant) and that the Parklife could be the aforementioned public sex action.

To be honest, I always knew this was incorrect but had an active imagination, and though this doesn't help answer your question, I figured somebody interested in Blur might find it amusing. And upon talking to other silly dumb American gay boys with good taste (if defending Damon makes you a weirdo elsietheeel, I don't want to be norm-o) I learned that at least one other guy thought the same thing.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:43 AM on September 3

Vorsprung Durch Technik - popular Audi advertising slogan in the '90s.
'brewer's droop' - loss of erection caused by too much beer

the song always gave to me a picture of a working-class guy wandering round London talking about his day - like Minty from EastEnders. I don't think there's much more to read into it, though MCMN's comment is interesting.

Damon is from Colchester so his accent would, strictly speaking, be Estuarine rather than Cockney.

A lot of the rest of the album does benefit from a knowledge of UK culture - it refers to Reggie Perrin, the shipping forecast, bank holiday barbecues and a whole lot of other British things. But then, not being American doesn't make me like Yo La Tengo any less.
posted by mippy at 10:35 AM on September 3

Before Blur got really famous, Damon lived in South-east London in a flat above one of my friends. His parents visited one Sunday with a cooked Sunday dinner -- the full works -- on platters.

He also came into the shop I worked in quite a few times. He always sounded rather genteel when he spoke then. If you listen to his accent now, it's reverted to being a bit posher.
posted by vickyverky at 11:03 AM on September 3

Weird, I always thought it was about hanging out in the park. There are people in most urban cities, and this is not just a UK thing, whose lives revolve around their local park. The chess players, the joggers, the bird feeders, newspaper readers, loungers and people watchers. For whatever reason, they don't have a 9-5 job and spend their days whiling away the hours in the park or neighborhood equivalent, living what might be called a "park-life". Surely, there are some issues of class here as rich people have more interesting and expensive things to do than hang around all day, but you could be over thinking it.
posted by sophist at 1:10 PM on September 3

rokusan's totally wrong - only because virtually no-one in the UK drives automatics, so the park/drive analogy is not something we'd think of. Not that you can't listen to it in that way, but that really would not be something a British person (ie songwriter) would think of.

I always interpreted it like sophist - an observational song. Go to any park in a big city in the UK and that's it. I thought there was a touch of the class-sarcasm also observable in 'Country House', with the line about it being "not about you joggers", joggers usually being on the posher end of park users.

Love MCMikeNamara's interpretation of it though!
posted by Coobeastie at 3:24 PM on September 3

fire&wings: I think I picked up on the mocking tone, based on how broadly the narrator is played. However, others here seem to think that's not the case. So why do people think that a Cockney accent is important to this song? At least, important enough to bring in a non-band member to sing it?

rokusan & MCMikeNamara: I like the cut of your jib!

mippy & sophist & Coobeastie: You guys seem to have the consensus, so I'll go with that. Still, why the Cockney accent?
posted by Mountain Goatse at 4:18 PM on September 3

A lot of Blur songs are about characters - many like Colin Zeal, Ernold Same (they got Ken livingstone to do the vocals for this because he could whine) or Tracey Jacks are not in the first person, but I think the accent is part of this. And perhaps partly because they thought it would be fun to get Phil Daniels on board - remember he played a quintessential British archetype in Quadrophenia fifteen years before the album was made.
posted by mippy at 4:32 AM on September 4